All posts by Rebecca Harness

Rebecca Harness is a Business Information Security Officer (BISO) for a publicly-traded, global information solutions company. As BISO, she champions security initiatives and recommends strategies to mitigate risk, facilitating innovation and new product development. She’s also responsible for representing the business unit’s security program in client facing engagements, conferences, and industry forums.
Prior to her current role, she was an influential cybersecurity leader for one of the world’s largest transportation providers, known for transforming information security efforts into well-orchestrated programs. There, she developed an innovative methodology for delivering key information security priorities as a service model, leading to quicker adoption enterprise-wide while significantly reducing operational costs. She also led and modernized their global, multi-brand PCI Assessment and other compliance initiatives.
In the early 2000’s, Rebecca developed one of St. Louis' leading Managed Services Providers from a startup in a spare bedroom into a mature consulting company with 30+ employees and 150+ clients in the Greater St. Louis Area.
Rebecca holds many certifications, including; ISACA Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA); ISC2 Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP); and GIAC Security Leadership Certified (GSLC). She’s also a proud alumni of Hastings College and a longtime member of the Society of American Magicians.

Every two years, ISACA chapters from around the world gather for the Global Leadership Summit to learn from each other and help set the direction of our international organization. Rebecca Harness, Administrative Vice President, represented ISACA St. Louis. Over 400 people representing over 80 chapters attended the three day convention, some traveling for 10-20+ hours!

Peter Weill, co-author of “What’s Your Digital Business Model” provided the opening keynote, and really opened our eyes to how successful businesses are transforming for the digital economy while others are struggling with traditional business models. This ended up generating quite a bit of conversation, as many of us discussed how the demand for new audit and compliance skillsets will continue to grow and further stress the shortage of talent within our industry.

After a brief lesson on Chicago history, the national representatives jumped right in to engage all of us on the digital transformation ISACA must make to remain relevant in an ever changing world. They then took this opportunity to showcase “engage.isaca.org,” the all new web site designed to engage, inform, and bring together our membership. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly encourage you to. There are volunteer opportunities, and forums where you can brainstorm with other members and ask questions to a really broad audience. There are some pretty active discussions out there. Very much worth a look.

ISACA is also launching a dedicated web presence to support our 50th anniversary. Check out ISACA50.org to learn more about our compelling history.

Speaking of web sites, there was a LOT of feedback about the national web site, and how difficult it was to navigate and engage with… especially for newcomers that may just be starting to learn about ISACA and GRC. There is a considerable effort going on to revamp that site, and we spent the next two days in brainstorming sessions to develop ideas for the national leaders.

Unfortunately, the feedback we received was that many of the changes would need to wait until a new CEO was named and able weigh in on the future direction of ISACA. In any event, major changes to our web presence and how ISACA engages with members new and old is likely to be a multi-year journey.

There are lots of exciting things on the way in the near-term though to help the local chapters, especially the smaller ones. A national committee was formed to create a number of initiatives to make running a local chapter easier and setting up new leaders for success. Most of it is expected to be delivered in 2019, but we have some training guides and other documents available to us now.

All in all, it was a fantastic event and provided an opportunity to learn from and engage with other chapters around the world!